Chapter 14
“Thank you,” Yvonne said as she gently pushed her plate away and sat back with a satisfied sigh. “That was wonderful. I don’t know if it was because I didn’t have to cook it, or that it was genuinely delicious. I can’t thank you enough.”
“You’re welcome. It’s good to cook for another person again.”
“I’m sorry?”
Kevin shook his head with a heavy sigh as he pushed his own empty plate to the side.
He leaned his crossed arms on the table.
“Karen stopped cooking for Caleb and me when Caleb turned thirteen. He was the typical teen that would eat us out of house and home. Which was perfectly fine, because he wasn’t the type of kid that played video games.
He was into sports, and was always either practicing or playing in a game. ”
“Which meant he needed the food for fuel.”
“Correct, and Karen being Karen, the entitled bitch she was back then, was repulsed by the amount of food he ate. When she tried to restrict his diet, I stepped in and told her if she thought she could starve a growing boy with her four hundred calories a day diet plan, then I would take over the cooking.”
“Four hundred calories?” Yvonne looked at him in shock. “No one can survive on that.”
“You know that, I know that, but Karen was all about image. In her mind, we had to be the perfect family. Perfect in looks, manners, and any other shit like that. Anyway, there were times that I couldn’t be there to cook dinner for Caleb.
” At her look of confusion, he elaborated.
“I had just made Detective in the Homicide Division, I was on call twenty-four-seven. All of us were, but we rotated which case we would get.”
“Was that so you didn’t take each case and were overworked?”
“Yes, I set up a bank account for Caleb, with his own debit card. On nights I was called out, or couldn’t come home at a decent hour, he used that account to order some food for himself.
One thing you might want to know is that Karen thought that since Caleb was a teenager, then her role as a mother was over, especially once he became taller than her. ”
“I understand. I haven’t met him yet, have I?”
“No, he’s over at Broken Two, and I’m sure he’ll be at the get together on Sunday.”
“I forgot about that. Remind me again what it’s for?”
“For everyone to meet us, and for us to meet them. It’s my understanding that the workers from Broken come over here to help out since New Double is still short-staffed.”
“Ah, and this way if I meet them, I won’t give them the third degree as to why they are here, other than working in the barns.”
“Correct,” Kevin said with a nod as he rose to his feet and started clearing the table. Yvonne joined in, and for the next thirty minutes they cleaned up after their meal. When the last dish went into the dishwasher, he turned and faced her with his hips leaning against the counter.
“Would you like another glass of wine?”
Yvonne worried her lip while looking at him, then finally nodded. “Sure.”
He poured them each one, and instead of handing the glass to her he carried them both through the kitchen and into the living room.
He turned to her, “You don’t mind, do you?
” He indicated the couch with one of the glasses of wine, and once she settled in, he handed her one, then settled in beside her.
Close enough to reach out and touch her, but not so close to making her uncomfortable. At least he hoped.
They sat there in silence as they sipped their wine, each lost in their own thoughts. He turned to her, and ended up leaning a little closer, then really studied her.
“What?” she asked quietly, a little self-conscious with the intensity of his look.
“Nothing, but can I ask you a few personal questions?”
“A few?” She smirked and sucked in her breath at how handsome his embarrassment made him.
He shrugged through his embarrassment, took a sip of his wine, and looked directly at her as he asked, “Have you ever been married?”
“No.”
“Why not? You’re a beautiful woman, and from what I’ve seen so far, you’re good at your job.”
“Thank you, and that might be my problem.” She sipped her own wine, and released a heavy sigh.
“What? That you’re beautiful?” He wore a genuinely shocked expression.
Yvonne laughed heartily, waving her hand before her face. “I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing at what you said. I like to think my looks are above average. No, I didn’t make that comment because of my looks, I made it because of my job.”
“Oh?”
She sighed as she settled deeper into the couch cushions, cradling her wine glass close to her body as she turned her head to look at him.
“Thank you for saying I’m not an old hag.
” She laughed at his shocked expression, then sobered as she turned fully to study him.
“You know what I’m about to say, and I fought it my entire career. ”
“What’s that?”
“Being in law enforcement is still a man’s job. No one takes a woman seriously, and God forbid any woman should move up through the ranks on their own merits, and not be harassed by men who say she only got there on her knees, or her back.”
“You’re kidding me?” He looked at her in shock, and shook his head.
He held up his hand to stop what she was about to say.
“Not that law enforcement is a man’s job, or world, I know that.
I’ve worked with some females in the past, and they have to work harder to prove themselves to some.
Not all, but some. I thought men didn’t think that about women’s promotions any longer. ”
“Believe it. You worked at the city level, I worked at the federal level. I don’t even want to know what happened at your level.
I can only go by my own personal experiences, but to answer your question, I was dating someone years ago.
We never worked the same cases, but we worked in the same office.
We started dating, we were together for about a year when a promotion came up.
We were both eligible, and let me say this right here, he was a very, very popular man in the office. ”
“With the other women, too?”
“Yes, but not to cheat on me, at least I didn’t think so, I never saw it or suspected it.
No, I’m talking about he was the guy that everyone hovered around in the office.
The guy that always had the big stories, the bigger take downs, the biggest bragger.
Someone did something, but he had always done it better. ”
“Ah, one of those people. The person that did an arrest, but it was better than anyone else ever could have done. No one could ever do it better than him.”
“Correct. Anyway, the promotion was a big deal.”
“How big?” he asked, to encourage her to continue when she stared into the empty fireplace, lost in her own thoughts. She talked, without looking at anything. Kevin could tell she was lost in the past.
“Big enough that whoever got the promotion would have to move to Colorado. We were in Miami at the beginning of our careers. Once the move was complete, the person who earned the promotion would be in charge of a team.” She looked at him again. “They would also be promoted to being an SSA.”
“Which is?”
“Supervisory Special Agent, not just a Special Agent. As I just mentioned, it would be a move to Colorado, become the head of a team.” She looked at him with a shake of her head.
“This wasn’t just for the people in the Miami office.
It was open for all FBI agents who met the criteria.
I had heard there were over two hundred applicants. ”
“And you won out of all of them?”
“Yes, I was even called to go up to DC for the next round of interviews.”
“Wow, okay, this might not be any of my business, but what did the guy you were dating think about all this?”
“Gary, his name was Gary.” She sipped her wine, and shook her head.
“He bragged that he was the shoe-in for the job. The entire process from when the job was announced to when the applicant was picked was eight months. Thankfully, though we had been dating for over a year before the promotion came about, we never lived together. Maybe an occasional night at the other’s apartment, but nothing permanent.
So, for eight months, I had to listen to him in the office brag about how good of an agent he was, and what he would be doing when he went to Colorado.
His biggest brag was that he would be spending his weekends in Aspen on the ski slopes. ”
“Didn’t he realize that he might have to work on the weekends?”
“You know that, and I know that, but Gary was the type of person that would only work nine to five, Monday through Friday. If he had to work past six at night, he’d put it off until the next day.
If he had to work on the weekends, he would pass it off onto someone else.
That’s what hurt him in the promotion. Needless to say, I got the job.
As soon as our director made the announcement, he ignored me for three weeks. ”
“How long from the announcement to when you had to leave?”
Yvonne looked at him with a grin, and laughed. “Two weeks. Again, needless to say, I didn’t tell him when I was moving. The day I left, it was a Saturday, and I sent him a text. I broke up with him, and told him I was gone. He didn’t get back to me for a week.”
“Can I ask what he said?”
“He demanded that I go to our boss and tell him that I was giving up the job, and that he, Gary deserved it more than I did. I just sent him several laughing emoji’s and blocked him.
The last time I saw him was the day that promotion was announced.
I’ve since received others over the years, but that was the first major one. I got the job based on my work merits.”
“Have you ever seen him since?”
“No, but I was in DC once for a conference, and I ran into my former director. I never asked, but he informed me that Gary was still right where he was when I left. He never got promoted, not even to Special Agent, he was still just an agent, still only did the minimal time. That’s why he never went anywhere in his career. ”
“He stalled out.”
“Yes,” she chuckled. “And according to Director Smith, he was still a gigantic braggart, however, the younger crowd that came in over the years never bothered listening to him. Toward the end, he had the reputation of being a has been.”
“The end?”
“He took early retirement, or so I was told. Oh, also, Director Smith said that he’s a security guard at some mall in Miami.
” She grinned as she finished her wine and set the glass on the coffee table.
She settled back and turned to him fully.
“So, to answer your question, no, I’ve never married.
I was married to the job. Since moving to Colorado, there was someone here and there, but again, they thought they should be the main breadwinner, and I should quit my job, stay home, push out babies, and wait on them hand and foot.
Once I learned that, I stopped the relationship in its tracks.
” She shook her head as she sighed. “After a while, it was better to just be alone. I lived in the same apartment ever since I moved here to Colorado.” She shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal.
“It was close to the office, rent was cheap, and it turned out that when my landlord passed, their daughter took over, and never raised my rent. I guess you could say I was locked into that rent, between you and me, I think it was because I carried both the gun and badge, because there were several times I helped other neighbors out with their boyfriends.”
“Domestic disturbances?”
“Yes, and based on my recommendations, the daughter was able to put in a kick-ass security system to protect the residents. Not just have it installed, but to have it monitored and repaired when needed. I’m not saying it was the norm, but there were a lot of single women, or single parents living there.
” She studied him, and nodded. “Oh, and I did background checks on some of the applicants free of charge. Only the ones the landlord got the heebie-jeebies on.” She looked at him intently then asked, “What about you? You speak of Karen, but has there been anyone since the divorce and her going to jail?”
“No, I never even tried.” He shook his head as he placed his empty glass beside hers and settled back. “First, I never had the energy. It took me months to finally realize that Karen wouldn’t be there when I came home from work. Then, I couldn’t put any woman through the judgement.”
“What judgement?”
“My neighbors. The house was built by my grandfather, and the neighborhood was sparsely populated back then. Then others moved in, and it was like its own little town toward the end. By end, I mean Karen’s final arrest from my house.
The neighbors were the type that didn’t want to get involved, but always flipped their curtains to watch.
” He nodded along with her. “Like I said, I could never put a woman through all that scrutiny, it would be torture, and she’d dump my sorry ass after the first time.
It was better to stay single, than go through that. ”
“And now?” At his look of confusion, she looked him dead in the eye. “Now that you’re here in Colorado away from prying eyes?”
He shrugged. “No clue. It’s not like I’ll be going to town every night and hitting the bars. That was never my scene, and I’m too damn old to start over.”
As they talked, they had moved closer to one another, and after his last statement, he looked at her in shock when he realized he had her hand in his.
With a smirk, he looked at her, leaned in, and took her lips gently in his.
When she didn’t slap him, or pull away, he deepened the kiss.
It was a long time before they broke apart.
Without saying a word to one another, they stood, clasped hands, and he only looked at her with a raised brow.
“Do you have protection?”
“I do.”
“Okay,” she said, and together they walked into his bedroom. It was a long, long time before either one of them was satisfied enough to fall asleep that night.